


Some confessions are difficult, but this one is easy

by TheDaysOfGold



Series: Psycho Pass - Between the Lines [3]
Category: Psycho-Pass, psycho pass 2 - Fandom
Genre: trigger warning for briefly mentioned death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:56:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23243641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDaysOfGold/pseuds/TheDaysOfGold
Summary: Episode: 5Timestamp: 19:30Following the Avatar Case, Akane ventures to the balcony to clear her head. Or, rather, to sort through her thoughts regarding a particularly difficult, hot-headed, brooding Enforcer that, on occasion, comforts her with all the care and gentleness a long-term lover.But the MWPSB is often a busy place, and while her own head rivals the mania of the building, she finds clarity in perhaps the only other person to unravel the complexities of Kogami. Not that Ginoza sees it that way. He's always found Kogami a mystery. But, at least, he can offer his second Inspector some information, and let her think of it what she will.But, like all questions, the answering of one is simply a way to disguise the posing of two more.Basically, a retelling of a private scene on the balcony at the end of closing the Avatar case. Just reading between the lines of what the characters could have been thinking. I own nothing from Psycho Pass.
Series: Psycho Pass - Between the Lines [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566241
Kudos: 15





	Some confessions are difficult, but this one is easy

She often finds respite on the balcony. Away from the halls and the walls and the terminals and the case notes and the unfair politics of the Enforcers and the Inspectors, away from the trouble, where twenty-four floors of space divide her from the ground, and she can almost touch the sky. Akane always liked the sky, always found a sense of calm at those dizzying heights. Perhaps, it’s because a fall from there would conclude the finite chapter of a life, and reduce the hurt to null. Or, perhaps, it’s because she can almost taste the clouds, so far from the concrete and the chemicals that plague the city floor, where everything is corrupt and even the regulation of Sibil seems like a roll of the dice.

Regardless, here, she can find a moment of peace.

Ginoza knows this because he often finds composure there too. So, when he steps out of the office and into the cool, afternoon air, it really is no surprise that she’s there, gazing up at the blue skies. They're not quite clear, but not quite cloudy either; those late-spring days still offer a chill in the air, but neglect to deliver the rain and the finger-tickling cold.

He steps in beside her, watching those unmatched skies, because he knows that, despite solving the Avatar Case, eliminating the perpetrator and closing the affected CommuFields, despite finding all the answers, there is still one question to answer. Though, it’s hardly about avatars and dead internet users.

No, it’s about Kogami.

Ginoza sighs. _It’s always about Kogami._

“Gotta say, you did quite well this time,” he says to Akane, because opening with a compliment is probably the hospitable thing to do. He’s never been particularly gifted with the niceties of having friends or companions, but this comment comes easily, because, for once, he genuinely means it.

“I can’t really take any credit,” Akane refuses lightly, and she seems to speak this with the same assurance. “Mr Kogami figured it all out. It’s incredible how he was able to get inside Mito’s head and predict his actions.”

Ginoza figures she sells herself short with the comment, because while Kogami did ascertain the killer’s movements, and while it seemed plain-as-day when he spoke it aloud, and though Ginoza feels the fool for not seeing it first when he’s the lead detective, Akane seems like one to often sell herself short. It results in two things, really; a humble, down-to-earth balancing weight to a sometimes-turbulent team, and the uncanny ability to constantly surprise with her aptitude those on such team, no less their first Inspector.

“That’s just how Enforcers are,” he answers, lapsing back into the protocol and iron-clad rules he’s set himself, lest he confess any internal thoughts to his second Inspector, lest he play a card he’d rather keep close to the chest. “They can do that because they’ve got the same psychological profile as the criminal.”

Akane’s vision returns upon hearing the comment, her eyes focusing on something closer than the sky. Though he seemed confident in the words, and though she sees sense in the sentiment, Ginoza’s phrasing catches an anchor, a logic gap with a seed nestled into the subject of their discussion, in the way the hunting dog comforted her at the site of the victim’s murder, her former classmate’s place of death.

“But he,” she answers, feeling uncertain of the words and her place among them. “Mr Kogami comforted me after that. And he encouraged me after I got it wrong. I know he’s classified as a latent criminal, but I have trouble believing he has the same mind as a maniac like Mito.”

_And he’s certainly nicer about my screw-ups than you, Mr Ginoza._

But she keeps that to herself. She knows stress doesn’t sit well with her first Inspector, that he can’t help but take it out on the list of people closest to him, perhaps in fear that they’ll cross a line with which he cannot follow. It’s no small semblance of comfort to know that he lashes out at her largely because she appears on such list.

But Ginoza’s heard her line of thinking from another Inspector, a former one, a friend he couldn’t drag back once they’d steeped themselves in the darkness. And by the gods above, he will not let that happen again.

“Fulfilling your duties as an Inspector is the only thing you should think about.” He answers clearly, because this instruction is as vital to their position as upholding the law, or abiding Sibil, or catching criminals. Perhaps even more so. “Draw a hard line between yourself and the Enforcers.”

For eyes so certain in their conviction, he still feels the need to turn away.

_As if you're in the position to lecture about drawing lines._

He looks to that open sky, trying to find some calm amongst the blue that’s trying its hardest to shine through. Why does this offer no respite today?

_Maybe it’s because the problem does not dwell within the halls of the MWPSB. It dwells in your inability to decide on which side of this fight you want to take up; the good side, the side of the Sibil System, of upholding the law the correct way, or the side you constantly yearn for, the one of friends and family._

What Akane says next is something he finds interesting, not inherently due to the words themselves, nor the dangerous line their meaning might skirt, nor the slightly-too-sharp of a tone that she’s seldom heard with, but because, despite these factors, he cannot find it in himself to be cross with her. These things should make him cross, but he and Akane seem to have passed that threshold already. Seem to be beyond that sticking point.

_And that’s just how it started with Kogami; the start of a slippery, slippery slope._

“Is that what a hard line is?” She prompts. “CID protocol?”

“No,” he answers gently, and a soft breeze pulls at their clothes. “But it’s the rule I live by,” he confesses, and perhaps it’s the honesty that makes Akane turn, a slight twinge of surprise on her face. It could be the words, or it could be that she too realises that they're beyond the point of a first Inspector scolding his misbehaving-yet-competent rookie to the point of public embarrassment.

She watches him, waiting for him to continue. He lets the silence play out for a moment, then speaks again, largely because he’s come to respect her, but also because keeping it in is _so damn draining._

“I used to have a partner, but I lost him due to a mistake he made. A mistake I couldn’t stop him from making,”

_Well, I could have stopped him. And I still could, if I had the spine to stand up for what was right, not just what was legal in the eyes of Sibil._

“I don’t want to see the same thing happen to you.”

_I'm determined to save you from this side of the law, not resorting to the methods of the Enforcers. I will be stronger than that. I will endure when they couldn’t._

He pulls up a report on his watch-screen, producing soulless, digital sounds, before Akane feels her wrist buzz, gentle against her pulse. The sensation makes it beat a little faster, largely in the realisation of what Ginoza has just sent her.

_It’s rare for you to break down a wall._

“That’s from the Personnel Department,” he introduces, before she’s able to ask a question that would require handing over more information than he’d like. “Delete it when you're done.”

Then, without another word, he returns to the office space, to the madness that is the building interior, with its walls and halls and screens and savage, internal politics, leaving that calm, blue sky and it’s ever-reliable respite behind.

Akane watches him go, bathed in the last light of the day, and looks back at her screen-watch to find Kogami’s personal file. His _personal_ file. If she knows Inspector Ginoza for one thing, it’s that the word ‘personal’ seldom appears in his demeanour, no less in the company of those he’s meant to be professional with.

The report has all the answers, though.

_Shina Kogami, Enforcer, twenty-eight years old. Former Inspector._

Akane’s eyes widen. “What?”

It’s no grand leap to assume that Kogami may have once been an Inspector; he has the CID’s knowledge down to a fine point, and his detective’s skills vastly surpass her own. Her surprise comes less from his aptitude as an Inspector, and more regarding his fall from grace.

Or, maybe, it’s that someone so caring of those on his team would have allowed it to happen. Perhaps, what surprises her most, was not that Kogami was thrown into the mud, but that Ginoza wasn’t there helping him out of it.

_While investigating the still unsolved MWPSB Special Case 102, Enforcer Kogami’s Crime Coefficient rapidly increased. Despite repeated warnings, he prioritised the investigation over treatment. His Crime Coefficient deviated from the regulated value, and he was demoted to Enforcer._

And frightening most of all, standing upon that balcony where Akane had found respite from the disasters of the CID offices and the mess of her own head, was the fear that these words, spoken from a cold, digital mouth, were a premonition of what was to come.

That someone, somewhere, somehow, would follow Kogami into this darkness, exactly the same way.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all,
> 
> Apologies for not updating since Christmas. I have no excuses for abandoning you for so long, but I can offer a sacrifice to the gods of AO3, and beg that you'll accept it as penance.
> 
> If that makes no sense, that's fine. It's late, and it probably wouldn't make sense if I wrote at any other time of day anyway.
> 
> Basically, the reason I've been away is because I'm working on final touches of my second manuscript. Over on Amazon.com, you can get my first novel, an urban fantasy story titled Golden Days, of which is my pride and joy and gift to the world. Grab the eBook, if you like my writing style. If you do, let me know what you think. Link on my bio.
> 
> As such, book 2 is on its way, but I'm glad to post this short piece for you all. I'm re-watching Psycho Pass for a university assignment, so there may be more posts coming along.
> 
> To all, be safe, be kind to one another and read some good books to each other. I wish you all the best.


End file.
